Rishi Sunak has insisted the outcome of the General Election was not a “foregone conclusion” and that he was “feeling energised” with two days of campaigning to go.
The Prime Minister defended his focus on what should be safe Tory seats as Sir Keir Starmer accused the Conservatives of running “an increasingly desperate, negative campaign”.
Mr Sunak kicked off a final push for votes on Tuesday with a pre-dawn visit to an Ocado packing plant in Bedfordshire and stops in Oxfordshire seats where the Conservatives won in 2019 by a sizeable margin.
He told reporters: “We have been to every part of the country, every type of seat.
“I don’t take any vote for granted.”
He denied the results coming in overnight into July 5 were inevitable.
“I know there are lots of people who want to tell everyone it’s a foregone conclusion but I don’t believe that.”
Mr Sunak repeatedly highlighted the fact that he had been up at 4am because his focus was on “fighting until the last minute of this campaign”.
Mr Sunak also said the prime ministerial role “entails sacrifice” and “there’s always work to do”, in a nod to Sir Keir’s desire to spend time with his family on Friday evenings.
The Labour leader dismissed as “laughably ridiculous” Tory attacks on his wish to avoid work after 6pm on a Friday, insisting he would work then if necessary.
At a campaign event in Nottinghamshire, he said Labour was making the positive case for change, adding: “What a contrast to an increasingly desperate, negative campaign that the Tories are running.”
Labour’s opinion poll lead over the Tories has hovered around the 20-point mark for most of the election campaign and the Tory strategy has shifted towards preventing bleeding votes to Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats, and saving as many MPs as possible to form an effective opposition.
In a last-ditch attempt to rally wavering Conservative voters, Mr Sunak will claim in a speech later on Tuesday that just 130,000 voters could prevent a Labour “supermajority”.
Earlier, he said predictions of a Tory defeat were “not going to stop me” after the likelihood of his return to Downing Street was put at less than “lightning striking twice in the same place” by Professor Sir John Curtice.
“That’s not going to stop me from working as hard as I can over these final few days to talk to as many people as possible about the choice.”
Speaking to staff at a distribution company in Banbury, Mr Sunak said “we’re on the downhill slope” when it came to inflation, taxes and energy bills, which would be “reversed” if Labour was victorious on Thursday.
“If I’m not standing here next week, you won’t get those tax cuts,” he told them.
On a visit to Taunton and Wellington, a marginal constituency, he said: “On July 4, people have the chance to make sure the Conservative dominoes fall across the ‘blue wall’ and West Country, and make sure a Liberal Democrat MP can take your concerns right to the heart of Parliament.”
Elsewhere, a second Reform candidate dropped out of the election campaign and endorsed their local Conservative instead, claiming the “vast majority” standing for Nigel Farage’s party were “racist, misogynistic and bigoted”.
Georgie David, who had been Reform’s candidate for West Ham and Beckton, said she believed the party leadership was “not racist” but had failed to “tackle this issue in any meaningful way”.
It came after Reform was embroiled in a racism row since campaigners were recorded making racist comments, including about the Prime Minister, who is of Indian descent.
